Blog 10

1.P.T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Body helped develop modern public relations because they used a type of PR communication which means they used all different types of media to spread their information to help their businesses. Some of P.T. Barnum’s strategies include inserting his ad in newspapers and handbills. Buffalo Bill used all kinds of media to develop publicity such as promotional newspaper stories, theater marquees, poster art magazine articles and early films.

2. Railroads and utility companies gave early forms of corporate public relations a bad name using similar strategies. Railroad companies would bribe newspaper companies to create favorable news stories about transporting by train. Another bribing method they used was by deadheading which is, giving reporters who took the train, free train passes if they wrote excellent reports about using the rail. Utility companies like Chicago Edison and AT&T used “ghostwritten articles” where they would take important leaders names and place them on an article that a reporter has wrote. They also employed third-party editorial services, in which the people would send articles about utilities to newspaper companies.

3. There are two approaches to organizing a PR firm. The first approach to organizing a PR form is that there are self-sufficient PR companies whose only job is to give clients PR services. The second approach is that companies keep their own in-house PR staffs to be in charge of routine tasks. These tasks include regulating media requests, producing special events, writing press releases and interacting with the internal and external public.

4. Press releases are announcements that look like news reports that write about new information about a certain person, organization or company and give their story idea to the news media. These are important to reporters because the reporters are allowed to control the amount of information coming in. They can also pick where the information can go and what order it can go in.

5. VNR’s and PSA’s are very different from one another and they have different goals. VNR’s are video news releases which are thirty to ninety seconds long and are designed to copy the design of a regular broadcast report. PSA’s however are public service announcements are shorter than VNR’s because they are fifteen to sixty seconds long. PSA’s are video or audio reports which advertise about educational projects, volunteer companies and government programs. PSA’s are usually scheduled to air between midnight and six in the morning because they are a less expensive commercial time slot.

6. PR firms usually want to sponsor events that have a positive value between the public. For example, companies like Adidas, Gatorade, and PowerBar would sponsor a road race so their product can be advertised.

7.  Lobbying and research has become very important to PR because they want to maintain a good relationship with the public. They also don’t want the government to take control and reduce their control over their own businesses so they try to keep a good relationship with the government too. Lobbying is a way of altering lawmakers to support a business’s organization.

8.  The internet changed the way public relations communicates with an organizations public by adding press releases, images, executive bios online so that their audience can have access to that information at any time. PR are interacting with the public on a more personal level by making Facebook and Twitter pages. This allows the public to keep up with recent information about a company or organization.

9. There have been a few issues between journalism and public relations in the past. One of the issues was journalists have called themselves as being a part of the public relation profession. A term called “flack” developed to refer to PR agents. This word is a military term which refers to a protective military jacket. This allows PR to be separate from journalists.

10. I believe that social platforms present more problems for public relations because it seems that a lot of people are getting in trouble whenever they speak their mind on the web. For example, in the 2012 London Olympics, athletes were sent home due to tweeting their thoughts which included an athlete who made a racist joke. At the same time, I think people should watch what they say because they could get in trouble. Social platforms are a good thing for PR’s because they attract more customers but people need to think before they post online.

11. After reading the Exxon Valdez, BP, and Tylenol cases, I believe the Tylenol company did a good job in responding to their crisis. Exxon and BP on the other hand, didn’t seem to go above and beyond to help with their crises. They didn’t take action right away which was wrong to do. What Exxon and BP could’ve done to improve was to communicate with the people and get people to stop the oil spill when it first happened instead of waiting months to fix it. Exxon and BP could contact ocean wildlife companies and try to help them out in any way because the oil spill had killed many wildlife. Tylenol did a great job at responding to their crisis because they contacted their customers by creating emergency phone lines and they also created tamper-resistant bottles so no one could contaminate their pills.